I got neutral toys, and then -- because I begged for them incessantly -- Barbies. I wasn't really interested in playing with Transformers. Although I considered all of my legos to be neutral toys. Maybe they were really boy toys.
What I did have, though, was boy books. Most of the books that I really really remember from elementary school were boy books. Matthew Looney and the Space Pirates. Encyclopedia Brown. Some other kid detective who did more science (Einstein Anderson?) Hardy boys. John Bellairs horror novels. I did read lots of girl books (more so starting in middle school). But I'm very glad I was able to read so many boy books.
I realized something when I was reading "Richard Scary's Busy Busy People" to your DS1 years ago. When there are male characters in a book I tend to think of them as gender neutral. Men or women could be doing those jobs. (This is particularly strong in "Busy Busy People". The people in pants could be either male or female. The people in skirts had to be female. So women can do anything, but men can only do some things.)
So I could identify as closely with the boys who were heroes as the girls.
My skills got even more elaborate when I started reading badly gendered science fiction -- when there weren't female characters my brain just filled in an equal and opposite gendered bunch of people somewhere else. Like this was the all-male space ship, and elsewhere in space was the all female spaceship. Of course women could do any of those things, and were, just outside the frame of the story. It was only when women characters were present and insipid that my trick didn't work.
Like I said, my head is a nice place to live, if a bit odd.
My head is a very nice place to live.
What I did have, though, was boy books.
Most of the books that I really really remember from elementary school were boy books. Matthew Looney and the Space Pirates. Encyclopedia Brown. Some other kid detective who did more science (Einstein Anderson?) Hardy boys. John Bellairs horror novels. I did read lots of girl books (more so starting in middle school). But I'm very glad I was able to read so many boy books.
I realized something when I was reading "Richard Scary's Busy Busy People" to your DS1 years ago. When there are male characters in a book I tend to think of them as gender neutral. Men or women could be doing those jobs. (This is particularly strong in "Busy Busy People". The people in pants could be either male or female. The people in skirts had to be female. So women can do anything, but men can only do some things.)
So I could identify as closely with the boys who were heroes as the girls.
My skills got even more elaborate when I started reading badly gendered science fiction -- when there weren't female characters my brain just filled in an equal and opposite gendered bunch of people somewhere else. Like this was the all-male space ship, and elsewhere in space was the all female spaceship. Of course women could do any of those things, and were, just outside the frame of the story. It was only when women characters were present and insipid that my trick didn't work.
Like I said, my head is a nice place to live, if a bit odd.